Faithful friends of their owners and also guardians of the human heart. Dogs are the pets that most help keep the cardiovascular system away from diseases. This is confirmed by a new study published in the monthly medical magazine 'Mayo Clinic Proceedings'.
One more member of the family that is made with the love of its owners and conquers the proper functioning of its arteries, veins, blood vessels and the very engine of life: the heart. According to the results of this research, " people who had pets, especially dogs, claimed to practice more physical exercise , follow a better diet and blood sugar was at the appropriate levels," explains Andrea Maugeri, one of the authors of the work, of the International Center for Clinical Research (ICRC), located on the premises of the Hospital of the Faculty of St. Anne, in the city of Brno (Czech Republic).
Maugeri and his team have collected for the first time health and socioeconomic information from a group of 1,769 people with no history of heart disease living in Brno. The idea is to track their medical records at intervals of five years until 2030 to be able to verify the association between having a dog and the risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
They were classified according to their behavior, lifestyle and the seven risk factors described by the American Heart Association (AHA): body mass index, diet, physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, glucose in Total blood and cholesterol. Cardiovascular health scores of pet owners in general were also compared with those who did not have and the score was also determined based on the animal adopted. Clearly, “our study demonstrates an association between dog ownership and heart health that is in line with the 2013 AHA scientific statement about the benefits of owning a dog in terms of physical activity, commitment and risk reduction. cardiovascular diseases, ”says the article.
Several investigations have shown that sharing a roof with a dog is related to better levels of blood pressure, cholesterol and a lower incidence of obesity. However, the American medical institution has always clarified that the direct cause-effect relationship was not clear.
"The key to cardiovascular health is physical exercise, whether riding a bicycle, running or taking the dog for a walk," says Alfonso Valle, a member of the vascular risk and cardiac rehabilitation section of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. It is known that " sedentary lifestyle in healthy people increases premature mortality by 10% ", so if it is a dog that encourages moving the body, welcome is the healthy lifestyle. Your heart will thank you.
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